In order to get a good shot at the top of the Section III Class C ranks, the Christian Brothers Academy boys lacrosse team first had to beat fellow challengers.
That included LaFayette, who came to Alibrandi Stadium Thursday night and engaged in a tense, close contest before the Brothers broke it open in the fourth quarter, going on to beat the Lancers by a score of 14-9.
Having not played in six days (last Tuesday’s game with Onondaga was postponed until April 28), CBA was fresh and ready to go, but could not score a goal in the first quarter as it kept turning the ball over.
The only reason LaFayette didn’t take full advantage of this was that, time and again, Brothers goalie Andrew Koscs made tremendous stops to keep his team close. Thus, instead of a big deficit, CBA only trailed 1-0 going to the second quarter.
And that’s where it got fun. In a span of less than three minutes, the Brothers traded goals with LaFayette and inched into a 4-3 lead as Braedon Gait scored twice following goals from Jack Zerillo and Alex Brunner.
By halftime, though, the Lancers were back in front, 6-5, and that back-and-forth trend continued through the entire third quarter. Eight different times, either side would go in front, only to have the trailing team tie it up on each occasion.
So it went to the final period still tied, 8-8, but when Zerillo found the net with 10:28 to play, CBA went in front for good. Numerous attempts for LaFayette to get back even were again thwarted as Koscs was running his total to 21 saves, his highest of the season.
Not until Brunner scored ff a feed from Andrew Romagnoli with 5:43 left did anyone have a lead of more than one goal. Not stopping there, the Brothers used two more goals from Gait to get away as Brunner would add a clincher with 2:39 to play to give him four goals for the night.
Romagnoli proved quite generous, amassing seven assists, all of them to the trio of Brunner, Gait and Zerillo, who notched his fourth goal in the waning seconds. Lincoln McGarrity had the other CBA tally as Matt Bennett led the Lancers with two goals and four assists.
